Getting late to this thread.
When I saw the news about Mayfield I was worried about RSKY since I knew he lived in that part of KY.
Glad to here RSKY is ok.
Very happy to hear of the outside organizations arriving to help. I think because of the vast news coverage, I saw Mayfield mentioned on Irish and UK news papers, more help is showing up than usual. Having said that, I have helped out after Hurricane Floyd, which was a major flooding event in eastern NC as well as at the site of a small tornado. The tornado was very localized and managed to set down in the middle of no where and hit a few homes, killing three people.
What was very apparent was that the Federal government was not really helpful either in small or large disasters. This really bothered me after Floyd since there are five major military bases in or on the edge of the disaster area. A few military copters were used for rescue, a very few, and one saved a family members life when she got swept away crossing a flooded bridge.
She had to get her hair done, it was hair day, even though there was no power....
If a guy in a pickup had not seen her car get swept into the creek, and if he had not been able to call out on a cell phone, and if that one copter was not available, she would have died. Over a hair appointment...
What is really difficult in these disasters in the rebuilding. It takes time. It take money. It take physical strength. It takes mental strength. The rescue phase is the easy part. Rebuilding is HARD.
Which is what ticked me off about the lack of military support after Floyd. What was needed where people to clean out people flooded houses. I took a team of coworkers on my second trip down eat to clear out homes. I took them to a small town where I had gone too during the rescue phase and I knew that place needed help. We only managed to clean out three homes in one day. A single platoon of Marines or Paratroopers in a week could have done sooooo much work but that was not allowed.
Who was helping where private citizens. Mostly church organizations. They were there for the long haul. I bow down to them. The small town I mentioned had Mennonites in town pretty danged fast. The woman were managing a warehouse with food and supplies while the men were out working. The Baptists had set up another denomination's church with a semi trailer that had built in kitchen, bathroom and showers. They had young men and women emptying the flooded houses, while older men with skills were starting to rebuild, while other's worked the "camp" back at the church. IMPRESSIVE! I bow down to them.
During the rescue phase the National Guard was fixing food and the Red Cross was driving around with semi warm pasta. During the rebuilding phase, they were gone. The locals were left with themselves and the private organizations. The State and Feds brought money, which is important, and they put up condemnation stickers on houses. That was it.
The private groups help with rebuilding. They were the people cleaning up and getting the work done.
The same thing happened at the place hit by a tornado. Local people were cleaning up the mess which really should not be a surprise because it was "only" a cluster of four homes that had been it. What was shocking to me was that a church bus was arriving the next day from VA. Yes, a state away, to help clean up. There was no "government" helping out at all.
In both disasters, we had to get all of the debris to the road side. The Fed's would pay to pick up the debris, from the road side, but the survivor had to get the debris to the road. This could be quite a problem due to flooded soil and distance. I made comment that we should just burn the rubble pile that used to be a home once we recovered what was worth recovering. A member of the VFD, who had helped rescue people after the twister hit, said we could not burn due to regulations.
This disaster will bring out the good in many, many people and some bad in a few, ignore the bad, and focus on the huge amount of good will being shown.
Later,
Dan
